First order deformations of pairs and non-existence of rational curves

Abstract

Let $X_0$ be a smooth hypersurface (assumed not to be generic) in projective space $\mathbf {P}^n$, $n\geq 4$, over complex numbers, and $C_0$ a smooth rational curve on $X_0$. We are interested in deformations of the pair $C_0$ and $X_0$. In this paper, we prove that, if the first order deformations of the pair exist along each deformation of the hypersurface $X_0$, then $\deg (C_0)$ cannot be in the range \[ \bigg ( m\frac {2\deg (X_0)+1}{\deg (X_0)+1}, \frac {2+m(n-2)}{2n-\deg (X_0)-1}\bigg ), \] where $m$ is any non negative integer less than \[ \dim (H^0(\mathcal {O}_{\mathbf {P}^n}(1))|_{C_0} )-1. \]